Most lighting applications utilize incandescent or gas-filled bulbs, particularly lighting applications that require more than a low level of illumination. Incandescent bulbs typically do not have long operating lifetimes and thus require frequent replacement. Gas-filled tubes, such as fluorescent or neon tubes, may have longer lifetimes, but operating using dangerously high voltages, are relatively expensive and include hazardous materials such as mercury. Further, both bulbs and gas-filled tubes consume substantial amounts of power.
In contrast, LEDs are relatively inexpensive, operate at low voltage, and have long operating lifetimes. Additionally, LEDs consume relatively little power, are compact, and do not include toxic substances. These attributes make LEDs particularly desirable and well suited for many applications.
What is desired are LEDs that produce the greatest amount of light for a fixed rate of energy. The overall efficiency of LEDs is reduced when energy is transformed in heat rather than into light. Although it is known that the brightness of the light emitted by an LED can be increased by increasing the electrical current supplied to the LED, increased current also increases the junction temperature of the LED where the anode and cathode is attached below the semi-transparent (and often colored) epoxy resin tip. Increasing the steady state temperature of the junction of an LED in turn reduces the efficiency and lifetime of the LED as the heated structure's resistivity is increased. Advances in LED technology have brought increasingly bright LEDs. However, such increased brightness is accompanied by increased heat generation, lower lifetime of the structure generally resulting in a greater need to evacuate heat produced by the LED and other heat generating components to reduce its temperature and in turn increase life expectancy and reduce power consumption.
Consequently, there exist a need for a solution that helps dissipate and otherwise transferring heat generated by the LEDs and their associated circuitry away from the LEDs themselves to increase the efficiency and lifetime of such products. In addition to optimizing the thermal properties of such an LED lamp or illumination device, there is a need to reduce material costs and to incorporate the foregoing in a lamp or illumination device in a form factor that is similar to that of the PAR style and the GU24 Circline lamps.